1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of boxes or containers for pills, capsules, or other medication, wherein multiple compartments are provided that can be individually opened for dispensing or taking out of a pill or medicament.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Reference is made to this inventor's prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,695 and to prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,955. To the best of the herein inventor's knowledge these prior art patents are more relevant than other known prior art, such as for example, the prior art that was cited against these patents.
The article of U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,695 is a commercially successful item. The prior art however, has left room for improvement in certain respects. In the prior art, individual pill compartments in the container were not air tight, this being a characteristic currently being required in this type of article by the Federal Food and Drug Administration.
Further, the characteristic in which there was room for improvement was that in the prior art, the cover for the container was removable as a whole, so that tampering or pilfering was not difficult. An unauthorized person could remove a cover and take out pills or capsules or substitute other pills for more expensive ones originally placed in the container, such as narcotic tablets.
A further area in which there was room for improvement was that it was not readily possible to reclaim a container after use by cleaning and sanitizing it and then reloading it for further use.
A further area in which there has been room for improvement is that of a need for an appliance or tool for facilitating the loading of the pill box or container. Doing so by hand by individually placing pills or capsules in the individual compartments has been a tedious and time consuming process.
The herein invention as described in detail hereinafter provides improvements calculated to fill the needs unfilled by the prior as identified in the foregoing.